An exciting week for Shelly Beach:

Duty Coxswain, Shaun Harris, fitting the new signage to the front of the base.

It has been an emotional and exciting week for Station 20, Acting Station Commander, Pieter Coetzee, said on his return from Cape Town on Thursday.“Firstly, we received news that the PGA Tour had made a generous donation of $10 000 to our station, then our new 7.3m RIB, Spirit of Dawn, was taken for sea trials in Cape Town, and finally our new signage was fitted. It has all been quite overwhelming. We are very sincerely grateful to all those people who made this possible”, he added.NSRI Head Office was informed by the PGA Tour last Friday that they had made a $10 000 donation to Station 20. The donation was initiated by Mark McNulty who is a regular diver at Shelly Beach.On Wednesday Pieter and the NSRI Regional Director, Eddie Noyons, went to Cape Town for the sea trials of the new rescue vessel, Spirit of Dawn, that is replacing Caltex Endeavour, the current 7.3m workhorse on the station.The make-over of the station reached another milestone at the weekend when the new signage on the side and front of the base was fitted.“During last year’s annual inspection and again this year it become obvious that certain areas inside and outside the base were starting to look a little tatty. It was decided that a coat of paint inside the base and new signage outside would make a great difference”, Pieter said.Last year the signage on the seaside of the base was replaced. Last weekend the signage on the front of the base and on the town side of the base was removed and replaced with new signage.“It was decided to use a photograph of Caltex Endeavour on the signage because she is being replaced in the coming weeks. She has served our station well over the years so we thought it a fitting tribute to her”, Duty Coxswain, Shaun Harris, said on Sunday.

Crew member, Justin Watson (l), trainee Morne Beattie (c), and his brother, trainee Ruahn Beattie (r), fitting the signage on the town side of the base.